Biography

Jean-Bernard Métais has been creating for public art projects since the early 1980's. Most of his major works were commissioned by public institutions or developed for international competitions. His work can be found in both natural and urban settings.

His approach integrates many diverse elements. It all begins with the way the location stimulates his imagination. “Making art in the public sphere,” says Métais, “means building a bond with a place and the people who live in it. My sculpting is essentially based upon the experimenting I do with the place I work in. The elements I bring into play are not an attempt to explain the location; they try to create a resonance, a sensorial bond between people and their environment.”

Métais' public art is both visual and conceptual. It is a specific response to each place, to each given situation. His artistic approach to sculpture begins with a formal construction, based on an interpretation of context, and responds to the location's physicality, its urban and architectural setting.

Neither obscure nor intransigent, Métais' work emerges as a subtle balance of asserting a sculpture's presence in a location, while communicating with the surrounding elements of which it is composed. Building upon this formal approach, he uses the social and cultural life and history of the place as sources for his conceptual process. The work resonates with the location, creating a symbolic yet tangible point of reference for its inhabitants. Métais often uses words to convey ideas that aim to reveal the location's function and unique character. The words he chooses, usually short, are significant for what they represent, but also for their expressiveness, imagery and poetic richness. This work with words also entails design research with the graphics themselves, to make them an integral part of the work's aesthetic dimension.

In Métais' work over the past twenty-five years, recurring themes can be seen: the stable and the random, the fragility of the present instant. He uses and mixes diverse materials without concern for whether they correspond to established techniques, from stainless steel to bronze, aluminium, glass and wood... but he also elaborates his work with sand, fire, water, wind, light and vegetation... According to the needs of each individual project, he explores and experiments with the materials that are most apt to serve the work within its given context.

The construction stage is an important part of his work. For Métais, the sculptor's role does not end with the production of a blueprint. The actual making of the piece is of the utmost importance to him. The technical team Métais has been collaborating with for many years now is tight-knit and professionally solid, ensuring him total mastery of his projects.

1978Travels in the deserts of South Morocco and MauritaniaFirst observation of sounds produced by the movement of sand dunesCreates workshops in Courdemanche (La Sarthe) and Ozenay (Burgundy)

1981-1985First creation of the Equinox and Immersed Pieces Series, monumentalworks in natural or urbansettings relating to the sun – Formentera, SpainTakes charge of the family winery in Jasnieres, FranceOrixas and the Forest (DRAC grant) – extensive travel in the Amazon,BrazilTravels in India, Jaipur and the desert of North IndiaEquinox and Immersed Pieces Series – monumental works in Creteil andMontpelier

2016Stratification of the Invisible - with Guy de Malherbe,Château de Poncé, Poncé-sur-le-Loir, Sarthe, FranceJean-Bernard Métais lives and works in Paris and Sarthe.Since 2012, he represents Studio Métais in Jurong and Shanghai, China.